Partisan fratricide over stem cells in Missouri?
Just when you thought that the strange saga of stem cell research policy in Missouri was over, think again. Two years ago, the state underwent an expensive, divisive battle over the issue - but for little significant policy change. Now, a group of state Republicans appears ready to repeat the strife, again with little policy implication, but this time within the ranks of their party.
In 2006, a wealthy Missouri couple successfully bankrolled a ballot initiative which constitutionally protected all forms of human embryonic stem cell research in Missouri. It was a bit superfluous, however, because at the time, the closest thing to a threat to the work was a bill introduced annually by a conservative senator to ban cloning-based stem cell research. This bill had never even made it to the Senate floor, and both the Republican governor and his likely future Democratic opponents had promised to veto any such ban. To top it off, cloning-based stem cell research was not performed in Missouri, nor were there any plans to do so. It was thus something of a mystery as to why Jim and Virginia Stowers were so eager to spend over $30 million on Amendment 2, which passed by a small margin.
But in January of this year, Governor Blunt announced that he would not run for reelection this fall. While the two major Republican contenders to take his place oppose embryonic stem cell research, the constitutional protection remains in place. However, the state's largest newspaper just reported that
Nineteen of the region's most prominent and generous Republicans - who over the years have donated millions of dollars to their party and its candidates - have launched a new effort aimed at protecting embryonic stem-cell research....
[Republicans To Protect Medical Advances founder William] Danforth indicated that some of the founders may link financial support to a candidate's position on the research.
What makes the establishment of Republicans To Protect Medical Advances even stranger is that (contrary to the claims of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) the new Missouri Republican party platform [PDF] does not actually oppose embryonic stem cell research using IVF embryos. It only is against "all human cloning" and "fetal tissue research."
Isn't this potential gubernatorial threat to embryonic stem cell research exactly what the constitutional amendment was designed to block? Why would party bigwigs lunge for the financial jugular of their own party - and possibly cede the governorship to their opponents - over a debate that will have little effect on actual policy? Although there may be state political dynamics of which I am unaware, Republicans To Protect Medical Advances are more likely to fracture their own party than materially protect "medical advances."
Previously on Biopolitical Times:
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